Medway Festival of Steam and Transport 2015
Report written by Alan Wenbourne for our Summer 2015 Newsletter
Sunday 5 April 2015 – Monday 6 April 2015
The Historic Dockyard Chatham
Chatham
The Modelzone was held again over the Easter weekend in the Smithy building at the Historic Dockyard, Chatham, which is, at least, protected from through-draughts but not particularly warm due to the main doors being open to attract visitors from outside. The weather was generally bright and cool both days.
Meccano was well supported by Tim Surtell (with Felicity), Douglas Windibank, Andrew Couzens, John Cowdery, Chris Fry and myself, and promoted by banners and ‘Make It With Meccano’ tables for up to four builders. We were provided with as many tables as we required and, at times, particularly on Sunday, visitors were three deep around our exhibits.
Part of our stand
The Make It With Meccano facility was particularly successful as reported here by Tim:
“We collected 65 e-mail addresses of ‘new members’ for the club, but there were 104 certificates handed out as there were a lot of families with more than one child. I expect there were probably around 120 participants in reality as it was so busy Andrew and I didn’t always get a chance to give out certificates. Most people built from the plans, but there were some freestyle models, including a winged unicorn!”
One of our Make It With Meccano participants
You can see all the Make It With Meccano photos in our Facebook album.
Watch our Make It With Meccano video
The event in general was bigger and better than previous years in that there were many more classic vehicles on display including Shelby Cobras, Mustangs, Ferrari, Lotus and Lamborghini cars and my favourite Jensen Interceptor — the world’s first production car to use the Ferguson Formula four wheel drive and traction control system.
There were also additional fairground rides, some very interesting ‘Steam Punk’ stalls and characters and more refreshment facilities, although fewer live steam attractions.
Andrew Couzens
Douglas Windibank
Chris Fry’s cricket green
John Cowdery
Alan Wenbourne’s models
Felicity Surtell
You can see more photos from the festival in our Facebook album.